He gives an exaggerated nod. “You’re the only one who can.”
I get the feeling that he’s about to tease me, but whatever, I’ll take the bait.
“What do you need?” I wonder skeptically.
His lips threaten to tug upward. “A kiss.”
I roll my eyes again. “No way, dude.”
He juts out his bottom lip, totally pouting. “Pretty please.”
I shake my head, but I’m on the verge of smiling. “I wouldn’t have kissed you before I fed from you, and I’m not going to do it now.”
“That’s not entirely true,” Alex disagrees. “You kissed Blaise and me while we gave you the breath of ease. And you kissed Blaise when he first brought you up to our place.”
“Hey, that was barely a kiss,” I protest. “I was mostly just biting him.”
He shuts his eyes and releases this soft groan. “Biting sounds nice, too.”
“I’ll bite you if you want me to,” I taunt him.
His eyes open. “Seriously?”
I shrug. “If that’s what you want.”
“Gods, please, yes,” he nearly begs.
Fucking reaper weirdo.
But whatever. I’ll do it. In fact, it kind of sounds fun.
I lift my head up to his mouth, grab his bottom lip between my teeth, and bite. He moans, his body shifting so he’s on top of me with his legs nestled between mine and our hips flushed.
“Can I bite you, too?” he whispers hoarsely.
Again, I should say no—I know I should. This isn’t like me … right?
The sad and brutal truth is I really don’t know. I thought I knew who I was, but I had no idea I was even a reaper until recently. And then my sisters seemed so happy without me when I had believed for years that I was the glue that held them all together.
“Softly,” I say, causing his brows to rise to his hairline.
“Fuck, I didn’t expect you to say that.” Without any reluctance, he dips his head and grazes his teeth along the arch of my neck.
I whimper, my legs fastening around his waist, as bursts of breathless coolness whisper against my skin.
He does the movement again and, like a dumbass, I rock my hips against his.
“Shit,” he mumbles as his hand finds my side. He starts to push back, but I pull him forward and weld my lips to his.
And then we start making out, tongues tangling, hands wandering, as we kiss and feel each other. And while it’s out of the ordinary for the old Hadley to do something like this, it kind of feels like the most normal thing I’ve done in weeks.
Maybe the whole feeding thing did change me. That thought briefly pierces my cloudy thoughts but evaporates rather quickly as Alex and I continue to kiss like a couple of teenagers that just started dating.
His lips become acquainted with mine for a while before endeavoring lower to my neck. He starts sucking on the flesh there, and my head tips back, my eyes rolling upward toward where Jaxon is.
He’s looking at me, watching his brother probably leave a hickey on my neck with curiosity glittering in his eyes. Then he starts drawing again, his gaze shifting from me to the paper.
“Are you drawing this?” I whisper, my voice low.
The corners of his lips quirk up. “I am. It’s too beautiful of a moment not to.”
I wonder what this looks like to him. I wonder what it looks like to me. I wonder if I could transport out of my body for a moment so I could see it and see my eyes so I could tell if this is really me.
Before I get caught up on that thought too much, Alex moves back upward and distracts my mouth again. We kiss until my lips are swollen, until I can think of nothing else, but one thing does stick out of my mind; a thing that lets me know that perhaps my gut instinct to trust him was right: that he doesn’t do anything further. No sneaking his hand up my shirt, no groping, no trying to slip his fingers up my skirt. He just kisses me, and that, I can handle. At least with him.
“Okay, did Maribell accidentally slip me a hallucinogen or is this really happening?” Blaise’s voice slices through the moment.
Alex pulls back but not far, and his eyes remain closed.
“It’s happening,” Jaxon tells him matter-of-factly. “They’ve been doing it for a while.”
“And you’ve just been sitting there and drawing while they do?” Blaise wonders with mild astonishment.
“I’ve been drawing them,” he clarifies. “And her. She’s a gorgeous muse.”
“True,” Blaise agrees, his voice growing louder as he probably enters the room. “Seems unfair, though, this whole thing she has with Alex. Like, why can’t she just trust all of us?”
I roll my eyes while Alex’s eyes pop open. He no longer looks riled up. He has a grin on his lips as he winks at me.
“I already told you the other day that I was her favorite,” he calls over his shoulder at Blaise as he pushes off of me. He rakes his fingers through his black hair, making the strands go askew. “You’re just unwilling to accept that.”
“You’re not her favorite,” Blaise argues, but a drop of doubt is evident in his tone.
I sit up, combing strands of hair out of my face. While I’m sitting behind Alex, I can see Blaise from over his shoulder.
He’s not wearing the same attire that he had on before. His outfit is still dark, but instead of jeans and a T-shirt, he now has on black pants and a dark button-up shirt with grey stitching around the seams. A chain dangles from his beltloop, the silver glint matching the piercings in his ears. He also has the sleeves of his shirt rolled up enough that the dark, intricate ink that decorates his flesh is visible.
“Why do you look like you’re going to an undead prom or something?” I wonder, kneeling up to get a better look at him.
“An undead prom?” Blaise says with his brow meticulously arched.
Jaxon chuckles from behind me, while Alexi rotates around and places his hands on my waist.
“You and your wordage, little daredevil.” With his hand still placed upon my waist, he spins around, quickly kisses me, and then hops to his feet, letting me go and turning to Blaise. “Did everything work out then?”
Blaise nods, stuffing his hands into the back pockets as his gaze slides to me. “I did.” He directs his attention back to Alex. “We all need to get ready, because the meeting is in an hour.”
“What meeting?” I interrupt, my gaze shifting between the two of them.
Hesitancy flashes across Blaise’s face, and it mirrors Rhyland’s.
“The meeting that will hopefully lead to us getting crowned,” Alex says, twisting to face me.
“It doesn’t just happen?” I ask.
Alex shakes his head with a frown. “Unfortunately not. At least, not with reapers.” He reaches out, takes my hand, and lightly kisses my knuckles. “While you have the powers of a queen, and we have the powers of kings, getting the current king and queen to release their titles is going to be an issue. And, while we don’t want to go to war over this, we might have to. For now, we’ll just start with getting the new crowns.”
My eyes widen. “War? Is it really that important for us to get crowned?” But then I recall something Scarlett said to me, something that I haven’t told the guys yet, but it feels like I need to. “Actually, I need to tell you something,” I say before either of them can answer my first question. “Something Scarlett told me when I passed out drunk.”